The overall objectives of the total project are the understanding of the effective stresses and strains in normal and abnormal lungs. Principal efforts are devoted to (1) the measurement of mechanical properties of lung parenchyma, (2) development of analytical procedures to characterize the distortion properties of the lung parenchyma, and (3) the application of solid and structural mechanics principles to study the nature and physiological implications of uneven stresses and strains in the lung.